Utah State Board of Education and Ogden School Board candidates appear in back-to-back forums

OGDEN — Tuesday night included a double feature of school board candidates facing the public’s questions in Ogden.

In a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Weber County, Utah State Board of Education District 3 candidates Rod Hall and Laura Johnson took several audience questions over the course of an hour at the Weber County Library’s main branch.

Utah Fits All

The state school board candidates were asked how they viewed the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program. According to the Utah State Board of Education website, “(The program) provides up to $8,000 to Utah K-12 students through an education savings account (ESA). Scholarship accounts may be used for education expenses and services, including private school tuition and fees, tutoring services, testing fees, materials and curriculum costs, contracted services, and more.”

Hall said that he sees the scholarship as a way of giving parents greater control over their kids’ education.

“The parent is a child’s first teacher and is responsible for the education of their children,” he said. “We want to make sure that if they’re responsible for the education of their children that we empower them to be able to educate them the way they see fit. I do support the Utah Fits All Scholarship because of that.”

Johnson said she believes it can be a good program, but concerns have been raised about accountability and transparency.

“There’s a lot of people who are worried that some people might take advantage of the system, that money might get wasted, that kids may fall through the cracks — that’s a legitimate concern,” she said. “When it comes to education, one size does not fit all and we have so many different kids with so many different learning abilities and so many different issues happening. I’m OK with the money following the child, as long as we’re letting taxpayers know where that money is going and as long as we make sure that we know kids are being educated and that parents and schools are doing the right thing.”

Civics education

Both candidates were also asked about stepping up the level of civics education in the state.

Johnson said she believes civics education doesn’t have to stick to a single class.

“I think it should be in everything we do,” she said. “If you’re teaching a writing class, have them write about the Constitution. If you’re teaching reading, have them read about the Constitution. If you can incorporate civics into math, or science, I would encourage that.”

Hall said it’s vitally important to teach civics.

“Most of our young people have (an) idea about our founding fathers, how this nation was really founded, what it was founded on,” he said. “I don’t think we need to be afraid to teach all of it. I think we need to teach the good, the bad and the ugly — every last bit of it — so we can learn from the things … we did that were wrong in this nation years ago, but also learn from the things that we did that were right and continue to do those things that continue to make this country great.”

Reproductive choice

The candidates were also asked about teaching reproductive choices in a school setting.

Hall said there’s no room in the classroom for more than the basics.

“Teaching reproduction is OK,” he said. “Just had a recent study — overwhelmingly, parents said that was OK, but that’s where it stops. I think we need to respect that and honor that and we need to empower parents with tools, if necessary, to be able to do that in the home. But I think that that’s a decision that parents need to be able to make and shouldn’t be one that the school takes on. I think teaching reproduction and the basics of how it all works is fine, but I think when you go beyond that, you’re getting into a place that is a parent’s role.”

Johnson, however, said her daughters have noted to her a gap exists in what they’ve been taught and she would like to rectify this.

I have two daughters in their 20s that went through Utah schools and they said there was some frustration over not going into enough detail and talking about all of the options when it comes to reproduction and sex education in schools,” she said. “I feel like we could do a better job. I am a fan of teaching all the options to kids. I am a fan of talking and having open, honest conversations and I’m also a fan of having the parents in the room when it happens.”

Other topics asked of the candidates included teaching climate change, teaching evolution, consensus building, involving parents, school safety, thoughts on the State Board of Education races becoming partisan, combatting bullying, banning books, cell phones in the classroom, Common Core and the role of the state in education.

Local school board candidates

Immediately following the state board forum Tuesday was a forum featuring Ogden School Board candidates Stefanie Crugan (District 3), Eric Hall (District 5) and John Peterson (District 5).

The presence of Ogden School Board candidate Jennifer Zundel (District 3) at Tuesday night’s forum had been anticipated but she did not appear nor was a reason for her absence announced.

Teacher morale

The candidates were asked what they would do on the school board to boost the morale of educators.

Eric Hall said opening lines of communication is important.

“I would want to engage with teachers and not assume this is what they need or this is what they want,” he said. “That’s the first thing I would do — go meet with the different teachers at schools and ask them, ‘What is it you need? What is it you want?’ Retention and consistency in our classrooms is incredibly important.”

Peterson said it would pay to look at economic stability for teachers.

“One of our big incentives right now is the pay structure incentivizes you to be an administrator and not just a teacher,” he said. “A teacher really should be the highest level of that. The best teachers should be able to stay as teachers their entire career and get to the economic level where they don’t have to jump over to administration.”

Crugan said giving teachers a say in how they run their classroom is key.

“They’re the ones that are there every day,” she said. “They know those kids. It looks different for every teacher.”

Mental health

Candidates were asked what they’d focus on to expand mental health services in the district.

Peterson said he sees a need to discourage phone and social media use among youth.

“I think phones should not have a place with kids until they’re at least 18 years old,” he said. “There’s so many things causing problems, but there is such direct data that phones and social media and the anxiety that comes from those things are causing huge mental health issues.”

Crugan said there’s a need for more staff trained in handling mental health crises, especially short-term crises.

“There is a shortage — a big shortage — of mental health workers in schools,” she said. “I can make a guess that it pays better in private practice than in a school district. Getting more mental health staff for, not just the kids in special education who have that on their IP, which is necessary, but for kids that are having a short-term crisis, grief counseling, something’s happening at home and they don’t know how to deal with it.”

Eric Hall said he, too, sees social media and phone use as the root of many mental health issues.

“I’ve worked with the state of Utah and Gov. Cox on the social media initiative and what they’ve been doing with some of the big social media companies,” he said. “It has a direct impact on the mental health of, not only youth, but adults. … Ogden School District has begun to look at that cell phone policy and enforce it a little more. They have seen immediate results with kids and their willingness to engage and discuss.”

Candidates were also asked about teaching evolution, teaching reproductive choices, school safety, book bans, serving all students equally, maintaining diversity and finding common ground.

For a replay of Wednesday’s forums, visit the League of Women Voters of Weber County’s Facebook page.